Double gear for controlling electrically and by hand devices placed at a distance.



I V.LOCARNL I DOUBLE GEAR FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRICALLY AND BY HAND DEVICES PLACED AT A DISTANCE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB- 14, 1913. I

1,1 35,596. Patented Apr. 13, 1915.

2 SHEETB-BEIIET 1.

, VLLOGARNI. .DOUBLE GEAR FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRICALLY AND BY HAND DEVICES PLACED AT A DISTANCE. APPLICATION FILED FEB-H, 1913- 1,135,596. I I \PatentedApr.13,1915.

2 8HEBTSSHEET 2.

,1 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE.

vrr'i'oiu'o LOCAIBNI, or CORNIGLIANO nouns, ITALY.

DOUBLE om ron con'rnonmno nmcrnicannv AND BY mnmivicnsrmcimar a DISTANCE. I 1

Application filed nann 14,193. s uire-140,317. a v

To all whom it mag concern Be it known that I, Vrrroiuo Locum, a subject of the King of Italy, residing at Cornigliano Ligure, in the Province of Genoa, Kingdom of Ital certain new and useful mprovements in Double Gear for Controlling Electrically and by Hand Devices Placed at'a Distance, of which the following isa specification.

The object of the present invention is a double gear for controlling movable parts of, devicesplaced at. a distance by means of two driving owers, that is to say by hand I posely excluded is bad to the power and y a mechanical power. By meansof this double gear the operator may avail himself of the mechanical power, thus being relieved of the excessive fatigue especially in the case of movable parts'the hanwhich requires a considerable l a strength, or he may at will act upon the said parts solely with his muscular strength without having recourseto mechanical powers.

The double gear is controlled bya single steering wheel, by means of which the operator rotates thecmain shaft and thus causes the, mechanical power to act on the driven parts and to keep open a coupling designed to'allow, when closed, the direct transmission of the hand-power, while, if the mechanical power fails to work, or it is par by=means of a, switch, the coupling provided on the main shaft becomes closed upon the operator further rotating the steering wheel, and thus the connection fordirect transmission of handpower becomes automatically operative, and

the control goes on without interruption.

This device may find conveniently appl1- cation in various cases; here, by way of example, and without thereby the scope of the invention, reference application of the device for steering ships rudders, and especially vertical and horizontal rudders of submarine boats. The mechanical power, which is de-' signed to assist the operator in performing his duty, can be ofany kind, but here it is supposed to be supplied by electricity.

According to the example shown in the drawing, the main shaft, which starts from the steering wheel, besides carrying the coupling mentioned above for the direct transmission of the hand-power, has connections, on both sides of the coupling, which act on the electrical machinery, in order to render have invented intending to limit Patented Apr. 13, 1915.

concordant the action of the electrical power with the moven'ientsvofthe steering wheel, when current is allowed to circulate in the feeding line. A

In theannexeddrawing, which by way of example represents an embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 shows the whole plant of'the steering gear for the verticalrudder;

Fig.2shows the whole plant of the steering gear forthe horizontal rudders, and Fig. 3 showson anenlarged scale a front view and a section through the joint of the shaft of the steering wheel with the steering gear of I the rudder or of the rudders.

The two plantsshown in Figs. 1 and are nearly'identical; therefore, the same reference letters are applied to corresponding parts in bothfigur In the said Figs. 1 and '2 are shown two rheostats E and --E- with the respective controlling levers Zv and --J for clearness sake these parts are shown twice in each figure, namely once in a side view together withthe gearings ofthe differential gear provided "upon the driving shaft connectedto the steering wheel, and a second time separately for each rheostat, these being diagrammatica-l and planeviews, in order to better show the respective electric circuits.

The steering gear'for the vertical rudder shown in. Fig.1v comprises: a sector -'Gr of a worm wheel mounted upon the rudders head, meshing with an endless screw --b--' which can be driveneither by "an electric motor m with the aid of suitable transmissions. interposed, or by means of the shafts -'-nand n--,, the latter of which is fastened to the steering wheel, R- controlled .bythe helmsman. The connection betweeifi tllile shaft and the shaft-n is esta is e y. t ecouplin -'g F' 3 The portion of theshaft n erlten di g toward the wheel -R@- carries an arm --K pro ecting radially and fastened upon the shaft itself, while-upon the portion -n''- extending toward the gear of the rudder is fastened a cylindrical drum 7) which has an inside projecting tooth -d-. Therefore, by causing the wheel R to rotate in one direction or in the other, the rudder is controlled by hand when the tooth -K meets with the tooth d on the one or on the other side. In other words the wheel R starting from the central position,

a which in Fig. 3 corresponds' to the line H,

has to run out the dead angle a before producing the motion of'theiuddr in"'o'ne direction, or the same dead angle a, but on the opposite side, before producing the motion In the opposite direction. h angular spaceswhich remain inactive with respect tothe movementof the hand operated rudder are utilized and become active for the movement of the rudder when-the latter is steered by means of the electric 'motor. a 1

The electrical steering driving motor m fed and having gfar comprises: a y direct current rent generator '-G- with separate. excitation and coupled to a. motor --M which in the drawin is also supposed to be an electric motor, utwhich may be a motor of any other type; a rheostat H- for startingthis latter motor; as differential regulator S. This regulator receives its mo- ;tion from two separate transmissions +2- sition M,

the excitation of the generator G- tion and with to the and -z* ending to the shafts n and n respectively. The transmission z which is connected to the wheel R by means of suitable gearings, moves the bevel of a difl'erential gear, while the transmission 2 by means of a suitable gearing moves'the other bevel pinion same differential gear. Both of said pinions turn loose uw-. Uponsaid shaft are fastened the shaft of the intermediate bevel pinion i'*- of the differential gear. and the contact-carrying lever The said rheostat -E- controls of the motor-generator --T- and when the steering{wheel is'in suchv a position that the arm of the coupling G-- lies in'the poas shown in Fig." 3, the lever l of the rheostat is in the ofl position; as indicated in Fig. 1, viz':It does not allow of any current passing to the excitin circuit of 'G. By turningthe wheel in one direction, the lever -Z by means'of the differential gear is rotated, thuscausing the current in the excitin circuit of to circulate ina iven irecan intensity WhlCh depends upon the position of the leverv with respect graduation of the resistances and which starting from a minimum, after the ofl position, reaches its maximum at the end a stat osite directiona Further the re lator carries a second rheothe controlling lever -l of loose upon the shaft -u -u,

which, :5

ese two,

one or in the other sense separate excitation; a -.motor-: generator set T- formed by a d rect curaround. the shaft.

-l of the rheostat' G but with current With0ut interposition of the differential gear.

The said rheostat .-E controlsthe excitation of-the driving motor m, and when the sector -a-o f the rudders head occupies its central position, as shown in l, the lever l lies also in the central position, as illustrated inthe drawing, in which position only a very weak current is allowed to ass into the exciting "circuit;

en the sector a--1"is*r otated in the by means of the shaftn and ofthe trans- 7 mission -2-'- is also shifted in the one or in the other direction and moving away from Y the central position allows thepassa'ge. into the exciting circuit of a current, the strength of which'increases by H of the rotation of the lightest value. The devicesgare arranged in such a way that the two positions, of the lever -Z at the end of its rotation correspond With the two positions of the sector w of the rudder I tion. In other words by and by as the angle of the rudder, starting from the central position, is increasing, there increases alsoin a predetermined "proportion the'exf citation o the motor and consequently its driving torque.

Me A partsof the device, it willfnow'be easy to understand the working ofthe same.-

After'having closed the l the motor -M of the transformer --T- is started by means of the rheostzit-H- and therefore the generator lG couple-d thereto; supposing now that the electrical connections between the 'diflerent partsare r having thus described the different and until atthe end a lever it reaches the at the end of its rotaline switch V-Q those shown in Fig; 1, the steering gear is a ready to be driven electrically. If the difsoon as the wheel -R a small angle in any direction whatever, also the shaft n rotates driving the transmission -2 of the rheostat is thusexcited and consequently sends current to the motor m which, being continuously excited, starts moving in the corresponding direction, the driving torque and the speed being .thereby determined by the posit ons of the levers and Z upon the respective rheostats -E and --E However, the motor when rotating transmits its movement to the shaft1i and therefore tothe transmission until the lever Z- by meansof the pinion -z'" hasagain reached'the'initial off position. In these conditions themotorm-is immediately stopped, for, as therebyno exciting'current is further sent ,in the, generator whereby the lever -Z- -E is rotated by means. -of the P1111011 -c'*-; the generator has produced the movement' I stop, the tooth -G--, the generator G- and the motor -mbecome inoperative and, by conveniently establishing the ratios of transmission, the tooth dof the coupling g-- carried by the shaft -nwill have rotated by the same angle and in the same direction as the arm K- of the shaft -'n which In other words as long as current is flowing in the circuits, the tooth dconstantly .runs behind the arm K whatever the sense of rotation of the steering wheel -R and the working speed comprised between a minimum and a maximum to be established, and in any position the wheel R- will -dnecessarily stops in a position diametrically opposite to that of the arm -K- f no more current passes in the circuits, the tooth -dstops following the arm K- and in this case the latter, prosecuting its motion due to the rotation of the wheel R- by means of the tooth -d establishes the immediate connection with the shaft irand without it being necessary to performany special operation,

vallows of the rudder being further steered by hand, thereby always acting upon the same wheel -R-. V

The steering gear for the'horizontal rudders, represented in Fig. 2, comprises the same parts mentioned in describing the steering gear for the vertical rudder; consequently, these parts are indicated with the same reference numerals.

There is only a difference inthe mechanical arrangement which for clearness sake has been shown diagrammatically, qand -g representing the horizontal rudders,which may rotate around the respective axes -yand y while O- ,1 d -.-O indicate the screws which when rotating cause the rudders to be swung in the same or in the opposite direction, and "-s--' represents a shaft which, by means of suitable clutches, may connect or disconnect the rudders,in order to obtain the simulta- I neous or independent control of their movements.

Although the horizontal rudders shown in the drawing are ofthe ordinary t e, that is to say turning around a horizonta axis it is to be understood that the device may a so be applied to rudders of any other type, for instance to those with outward orgvariable projection or otherwise fitted.

Suitable transmissions 'swith the motor --mand with the shaft -'n,.

.Having now fully described this my invention, and how the same is to be carried out, I declare that what I claim is In a double-acting steering gear of the class described the combination of a steering wheel, a shaft formed in two portions, that is a driving and a driven portion, a steerin a gteering gear driven by an electric motor connected to the driven portion of the shaft, a mechanicalcoupling between the two portions of the shaft allowing a limited amount of relative rotation of the one in respect of connect the shaft wheel connected to the driving portion,

the other, controlling electrical-devices for wheel the motor is started and the rudder' gear thus actuated rotates also the driven and reversing the motor,

part of the shaft, and thereby the control,

ling devices are caused to stop the motor as soon as if the motor fails to operate, the mechanical coupling transmits directly to the rudder gear the hand-power acting on the steering wheel. In witness whereof I have hereunto set in hand" in the presence of two subscribing witnesses this 21st da of J anuar 1913.

" VIT ORIO LO ARNI.

Witnesses: Gmsnrrn PARomn, EMILIo BORIO.

the rudder has taken the position 7 shown by the steering wheel, while, 

